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own

[ohn]

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adjective

of, pertaining to, or belonging to oneself or itself (usually used after a possessive to emphasize the idea of ownership, interest, or relation conveyed by the possessive): He spent only his own money.

(used as an intensifier to indicate oneself as the sole agent of some activity or action, preceded by a possessive): He insists on being his own doctor.

verb (used with object)

to have or hold as one's own; possess: They own several homes.

to acknowledge or admit: to own a fault.

to acknowledge as one's own; recognize as having full claim, authority, power, dominion, etc.: He owned his child before the entire assembly. They owned the king as their lord.

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Own is one of our favorite verbs.

So is hornswoggle. Does it mean:

to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.

LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

verb (used without object)

to confess (often followed by to, up, or up to): The one who did it had better own up. I own to being uncertain about that.

Idioms

come into one's own,

to take possession of that which is due or owed one.

to receive the recognition that one's abilities merit: She finally came into her own as a sculptor of the first magnitude.

get one's own back, to get revenge and thereby a sense of personal satisfaction, as for a slight or a previous setback; get even with somebody or something: He saw the award as a way of getting his own back for all the snubs by his colleagues.

hold one's own,

to maintain one's position or condition: The stock market seems to be holding its own these days.

to be equal to the opposition: He can hold his own in any fight.

10.

of one's own, belonging to oneself: She had never had a room of her own.

11.

on one's own,

by dint of one's own efforts, resources, or sense of responsibility; independently: Because she spoke the language, she got around the country very well on her own.

living or functioning without dependence on others; independent: My son's been on his own for several years.

Origin:
before 900; (adj.) Middle English owen, Old English āgen (cognate with German eigen, Old Norse eigenn), orig. past participle of āgan to possess (see owe); (v.) Middle English ownen, Old English āgnian, āhnian, derivative of āgen

Related forms

non·own·ing, adjective

un·owned, adjective

Synonyms
3. See have.

Antonyms
3. lack, need.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To own

Example Sentences

OF all the ways people experience themselves, perhaps none is so primal as the sense of their own bodies.

For many students and their families, scraping together the money to pay for college is a big enough hurdle on its own.

Barça puts more emphasis than any other major team on growing its own players.

EXPAND

OF all the ways people experience themselves, perhaps none is so primal as the sense of their own bodies.

For many students and their families, scraping together the money to pay for college is a big enough hurdle on its own.

Barça puts more emphasis than any other major team on growing its own players.

But travel at your own risk, officials say-despite the armed guards.

What atheists say to that is that purpose can be had in our lives by us creating our own purpose, everyone has purpose.

Get your own copy of this recently conserved treasure.

Create your own outdoor fort with our step-by-step instructions for making your own backyard tipi.

If the flu virus doesn't kill you, your own immune system might.

In the writing process, there is perhaps nothing harder than reading one's own work with a critical eye.

Follow these instructions to create your own miniature ghosts.

Scientists have discovered that certain caterpillars manufacture and secrete their own insect repellent, a new study shows.

Many of the largest gems have their own mythologies, often involving tales of death and deception.

Make your own backyard adobe oven with our step-by-step pictures and directions.

While every computer these days comes pre-loaded with an adequate number of fonts, sometimes you want to create your own.

The great critics who strode the earth at mid-20th century had to defend themselves against their own detractors.

Students will examine their own modern culture and compare it to other cultures around the world.

How about one where each student ends up with his or her own digital camera.

The whole is about the size of an attaché case-barely larger than the first generation of laptop computers in our own day.

Make your own outdoor shower by following our easy step-by-step instructions.

Soon, those satellites might get minds of their own.

Answer a few questions, fill in some form fields, and voilà-your own blog on your own domain.

It would be ideal, however, if they could find out about their own home town.

Each era has its own dominating themes of global politics.

The soldiers warned him he'd find nothing there but his own tombstone.

Starting crops from seed is a satisfying and economical way to grow your own plants, flowers, and veggies.

Geography is for life and not simply an exercise for its own sake.

Propellants can be in the form of a solid, liquid or gas, each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

But they would be working on other subjects at their own speeds.

Find out how you can do the same with a prefab building of your own.

Think back to your model watershed and what you learned about your own watershed.

The water in which they live can give jellyfish coloring, as can their own unique type of farming.

Atala and co-workers make replacement parts out of patients' own raw materials.

Guests build their own burritos, so all you have to make is the slaw.

Learn the shocking details and damaging power of lightning first hand by spinning up your own virtual thunderbolts.

In humans this capacity transcends our own birth and death.

The stylish octogenarian is, by his own account, as busy as ever.

How to make your own layered or wrapped wedding invitations.

Ask students to form pairs, but show their work on their own maps.

Yes, the states are moving and trying to write their own rules.

Customers put together their own meals in a continuous, moving operation.

Here's how to get started growing your own fresh, delicious food in garden beds or pots.

Make a two-column chart on the board, and ask students to make the same chart on their own paper.

At a time of their own chosing and with as little real damage as possible.

Take your own plastic or metal container to the restaurant to take home your leftovers when you're eating out.

If you're comfortable chopping your own firewood or kindling, your small camp ax or hatchet is perfect for splitting a pumpkin.

Or chimps may have developed the behavior on their own.

Without becoming isolationist, such bioregions would produce much of their own food, fiber and water and recycle their waste.

She wanted viewers to be able to invent their own stories to suit the scene, perhaps even insert themselves in it.

Create your own look with unexpected combinations.

He explains that he wants to inspire kids to dream their dreams and reach their own goals.

Most of all, he wanted a place where he could read and write at his own pace.

Here's how to grow vegetables and fruits in your own backyard garden.

Have them record their estimates on their own paper.

My tattoos are symbolic of my own independence and self-expression, and they weren't done for anyone but me.

Essential tools and tips for making your own delicious fresh cheeses more.

Bard wants to create chimps who feel at home with their own kind.

To ensure their own survival, parasites alter the appearance and behavior of their hosts in the creepiest ways.

Some of us buy yogurt at the supermarket, while others make their own at home.

Now the learning-management software company is picking a legal fight of its own.

Companies would then buy cheap credits and continue doing business as usual rather than cutting their own emissions.

Find out how to create your own room-size camera obscura.

The brain generates an electric field that influences its own activity.

Learn how to make your own toothpaste, hair dye, and skin-care products.

Fragrance buffs who wish to create their own scents have many options.

Share your own cleaning confessions and odd habits here.

Of late, however, much of that deliberation has been devoted to its own rules.

In the future people who need a body part may get their own back--regrown in the lab from their own cells.

It was as if she were conducting her own concert of color.

Learn how to make your own hot sauce, vanilla extract, and canned tomatoes.

All you need to make your own yogurt is milk, a little bit of yogurt and a warm place.

It lets users build their own social networks for each circle of friends.

After rising to sublime heights, the sacred city may have engineered its own downfall.

European astronomers have found the first solid evidence for a rocky planet outside our own solar system, they revealed today.

Mamaw could take the smart out of a wasp sting and hold her own in bubble-gum-blowing contests.

Or you could build your own for a few hundred bucks.

As the government fumbles its reaction to the widespread contamination, residents are using their own dosimeters.

H sapiens is aggressive/hostile to our own species, but indifferent to others.

Buffett is leaving to set up his own investment and advisory firm, a person briefed on the matter.

As an instructor, stepping outside the comfort of my own teaching style is a daunting task.

Scientists say it's the first time wild animals have been shown to call out their own names.

Create your own unique budget patio with one of our plans.

India's university system have been stymied by resistance not only from the opposition but also from within his own party.

They'll then make their own maps from memory after.

In addition, embryonic stem cells are effective in their own right.

Crows make tools, play tricks on each other, and caw among kin in a dialect all their own.

Using a piece of the person's own body makes it more likely to accept the necessary lens.

They feel that if they own the land that any artifacts they find belong to them.

Your step-by-step guide to building and using your own backyard adobe oven.

If you drive to a workshop or a training session in your own vehicle and pay for the fuel, you can deduct the milage.

Buying organic vegetables is great, but growing your own is even better.

To end their own lives, humans need the guts and the means to carry out their plans.

Each specimen has its own unique traits, and together the collection represents the vast.

Get step-by-step instructions and diagrams for building your own leafy backyard retreat.

My own impression is that the natural sciences function more this way than engineering.

Nominate your own wonderful, weird, or wacky choices for this magazine series.

Disabled genes, molecular relics scattered across the human genomic landscape, have a story of their own to tell.

On her own she has designed a third, called mkSolaire, tailored more for urban than suburban lots.

Every generation develops a legitimate response to its own time, shaped by its own location in history.

When a group is being intelligent, whether it's made up of ants or attorneys, it relies on its members to do their own part.

For some car aficionados, a vehicle takes on a personality all its own.

The story usually relates to the writer's own particular experience.

How to make your own seasonal centerpieces for your wedding reception, and bridal bouquets from the garden.

When you own stock, you own a tiny piece of a company.

Then he remembered his grandfather's story, so he threw his own hat to the ground.

The taxi disappeared around a distant corner in a cloud of its own dust.

Bosket has been designing wreaths for decades, first for her own home, and then for her floral and interior design business.

On a personal level, their children attended college, and they loved their own college experiences.

Tumors cannot grow unless they recruit their own private blood supply.

Attending to more modern objects presents its own challenges.

How one couple put their own fresh spin on old-fashioned style.

He filled in his own interpretations here and there, generated some data, and added some quotes from recent scholarship.

It may well be that our mirror neurons react only to actions that are part of our own motor repertoire.

The city hosts a number of annual festivals and has its own ballet and symphony.

Make your own elegant tower for your favorite climbing plants.

Satin was nursing her own kittens, and exhausted workers hoped she might be willing to add one more to her family.

If you plan to grow your own seedlings, start such crops.

Ask how many of your students have pets of their own or friends and neighbors with pets.

Find your own serene escape with these smart tips and strategies for making a calming spa bathroom at home.

We watched her grow up and learn to live on her own.

Have students collect and look through travel brochures for destinations in their own region.

See how to make your own sturdy wire supports for your growing vines.

Animals killing their own species' young is not particularly rare across the animal kingdom.

How to make an aromatic herb wreath in minutes, using your own wreath.

In the future people who need a body part may get their own back-regrown in the lab from their own cells.

Learn how to create your own feast from these camping recipes created by some of the best chefs around the country.

Get our recipes for easy-to-make pizzas that you can grill in your own backyard.

Make these little bites as gifts, or serve them at your own party.

Making your own hard cider is surprisingly easy, and the result is surprisingly good and versatile.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

own (əʊn)

—*determiner*
1.	a. (intensifier): John's own idea; your own mother
	b. (as pronoun): I'll use my own
2.	on behalf of oneself or in relation to oneself: he is his own worst enemy
3.	come into one's own
	a. to become fulfilled: she really came into her own when she got divorced
	b. to receive what is due to one
4.	informal get one's own back to have revenge
5.	hold one's own to maintain one's situation or position, esp in spite of opposition or difficulty
6.	on one's own
	a. without help
	b. by oneself; alone

—vb (when intr, often foll by up, to, or up to)
7.	(tr) to have as one's possession
8.	to confess or admit; acknowledge
9.	rare (tr; takes a clause as object) to concede: I own that you are right

[Old English āgen, originally past participle of āgan to have; related to Old Saxon ēgan, Old Norse eiginn. See owe]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

own

O.E. agen "one's own," lit. "possessed by," from P.Gmc. *aigana- "possessed, owned" (cf. O.S. egan, O.Fris. egin, O.N. eiginn, Du. eigen, Ger. eigen "own"), from pp. of PIE *aik- "to be master of, possess," source of O.E. agan "to have" (see owe).

EXPAND

own

evolved in early M.E. from O.E. geagnian, from root agan "to have, to own" (see own), and in part from own (adj.) (q.v.). It became obsolete after c.1300, but was revived early 17c., in part as a back-formation of owner (mid-14c.), which continued. To own up "make full confession" is from 1853.

COLLAPSE

American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

own

In addition to the idioms beginning with own, also see afraid of one's own shadow; after one's own heart; beat someone at his or her own game; blow one's own horn; call one's own; close to home; come into (one's own); dig one's own grave; do one's (own) thing; dose of one's own medicine; get (one's own) back; get one's (own) way; go one's (own) way; hold one's own; in one's (own) interest; in one's own backyard; in one's own right; in one's own world; keep one's own counsel; know one's own mind; leave to someone's own devices; mind of one's own; mind one's own business; of one's own accord; on one's (own) feet; on one's own; on one's own account; on one's own time; paddle one's own canoe; pay back in one's own coin; pay one's (own) way; pick on (someone your own size); pull one's (own) weight; sign one's own death warrant; stew in one's own juice; take into one's (own) hands; under one's own steam; write one's own ticket.

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